As a sales professional, sales leader or business owner, distractions can often be the main obstacle for achieving great success.

If you have too many distractions, you will never achieve your full potential.

It is important to continue to evaluate what sales activities will be most important to reach your goals. Then, you must focus on those activities first, and make a commitment to complete them each and every day without failure.

You must remove and minimize your distractions. You will then have the time to focus on what you have determined is most important.

Here are some tips on how to minimize common distractions:

Limit your number of social networks. Determine which social networking sites are most valuable to you. You may be a member of multiple forums, on line groups, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and will be invited to join other networks as well. Pick a couple that are most helpful for you and drop the rest.

Do not log into social networking sites while you are working. Save social networking for times when you are not at work.

Block time to check your email. When you are working on a task, focus on the task. Emails constantly flying into your inbox can be a constant distraction. Schedule specific times during the day to read and send emails.

Send fewer, shorter emails. Also, don’t become dependent on emailing versus picking up the phone. There is value in the personal touch.

Shut off notifications. Are you constantly getting pinged with an email, or tweet, or text or IM? When are you actually focused and present in the moment? Don’t forget that the most important time you have is right now. Consider at times completely shutting off your computer or turning off your smartphone.

Clear off your desk. Only keep what you truly need on it. Keep it neat and tidy. Do the same for your computer desktop.

Do one thing at a time. Multitasking can be totally counterproductive.

Do the tough stuff first.

Have a cut off time. Make sure you have set times to complete your activities as well as set times to stop working. Have you ever planned a trip where you left work early at 12:00 noon? Remember how much you got done before 12:00 noon because you knew you had to leave early that day? Exactly.

The next step is to put these items into action and start minimizing your distractions today. Also, consider making a list of all other distractions you may have.

By minimizing my own distractions, I was able to be a #1 sales performer within multiple fortune 500 organizations. Now, as a sales coach, I help support my sales coaching clients achieve similar success by providing specific solutions to challenges that are holding them back from extraordinary results.

All too often, I see emails from sales professionals and business leaders that are 10x’s longer than they need to be.

They loose the attention of the recipient and the purpose is not always clear right away.

By learning to write brief emails you will save yourself time and save the time of the recipient.

Below are some tips for writing brief emails:

Keep it to a few sentences. 2 to 5 sentences max is a good rule.

Skip a long greeting. Their time is valuable so get to the point.

Focus on a single topic. This will help you keep it concise.

Re-Read & Edit. Remove unnecessary words and sentences.

Consider not sending. Sometimes, an email is unnecessary.

Do you get a lot of paper letters and junk in your mail?

Does it ever pile up and sit unopened or get thrown into the garbage only to sacrifice another tree? Does it waste your time to open up the mail to see what’s inside?

I have taken the initiative to receive less mail and the process has been working for me.

Here are some of the steps you can take to receive less paper junk mail, and have more time for more important things:

1. Catalogs. Email or call the company and request to be removed from their mailing list.

2. Junk Mail. There are some great resources here.

3. Bank and Financial Statements. Go to the website and request for electronic statements.

4. Bills. Set up autopay. Request e-bills or no bill at all if you autopay.

5. Checks. If you receive checks on a regular basis see if you can receive them via Paypal or direct deposit into your account.

6. Invoices. Ask for electronic invoices versus paper invoices.

7. Business Correspondence. Ask to be removed from mailing lists and ask that they email you instead.

8. Magazines & Newspapers. Well, some people like to have the printed copy of a magazine or newspaper and I can understand that, so this one, like all of the above, are optional. The option is to cancel your paper subscriptions and read online.

9. Credit Card Offers. There are some great resources here.

Zen To Done: The Simple Productivity E-Book

The below is from by Leo Babauta’s Website:

Zen To Done is a simple system to get you more organized and productive, and keep your life saner and less stressed, with a set of habits.

Zen To Done takes some of the best aspects of a few popular productivity systems (GTD, Stephen Covey and others) and combines them with the mandate of simplicity. It makes things as simple as possible, and no more.
Buy the ZTD system in a handy e-book, with additional material, resources and forms:

Reader testimonial: “I had always dabbled in trying to establish some sort of productivity habits, but GTD and everything similar seemed too intensive to realistically implement. ZTD and its simplicity make perfect sense to me.” Christopher

What is ZTD?

Simply put, ZTD teaches you:

• The key habits needed to be productive, organized, and simplified … and no more than that.
• How to implement these key habits … tips on forming a habit.
• How to organize these habits into a simple system that will keep everything in your life in its place.
• How to simplify what you need to do.
• Minimal ZTD. Also includes an even simpler version called Minimal ZTD.

Hundreds of readers have written to me with comments about how ZTD has changed their lives, made them more organized and less stressed, and has worked better than other productivity systems. It’s definitely worth a try.

Why buy the e-book?

Buy It Here: The Simple Productivity E-Book

A number of reasons:

It’s handy. All the articles are gathered in one easy-to-read e-book, making it easy to print stuff out, read it on any computer, or take it with you.

There’s more material. This ebook includes the essential productivity concepts written about here on Zen Habits, and more, from an FAQ to a practical application of ZTD in my everyday life to resources to forms and more. More on this stuff below.

Forms. I decided to give a sample of how you could set up ZTD with some simple forms. Of course, ZTD is flexible … you don’t need to use these forms, but I thought they’d be useful.

Resources. Links to articles and tools are available in the e-book.

FAQ. A number of readers had questions/comments about ZTD that I thought I’d answer in the e-book. I think this will be a useful feature.

Snazzy new look. The e-book was designed by James Wondrack, and he did a great job.

Pricing: To keep the book affordable, I’m pricing it at $9.50 … less than $10 for something that can improve your life right away … and again, with author tech support!

Buy the e-book now here: Productivity E-Book

Reader testimonial: “I’d say that the minimalist system is a safe first step. The beauty is, of course, that it needn’t be just a first step: it works as it is and some people don’t need to go any further.” Jeff

Table of Contents:
Introduction
1 Why ZTD?
2 Overview – What is it?
3 Minimal ZTD – the simpler alternative
4 Forming the 10 Habits
5 Habit 1: Collect
6 Habit 2: Process
7 Habit 3: Plan
8 Habit 4: Do
9 Habit 5: Simple, trusted system
10 Habit 6: Organize
11 Habit 7: Review
12 Habit 8: Simplify
13 Habit 9: Routine
14 Habit 10: Find Your Passion
15 A Day with Zen To Done
16 ZTD FAQ
17 Resources

Get The E-Book Now Here & Increase Your Productivity Today

Other E-Books:

Motivation E-Book
Minimalist Life E-Book
Productivity E-Book

The Essential Motivation Handbook – Learn How To Motivate Yourself Now!

With The Essential Motivation Handbook you’ll have all the tools you need to push past any obstacle that might be holding you back. ‘The Essential Motivation Handbook’ is your ticket to finally getting things done and moving past the mundane!

Here is the table of contents, listing the powerful insight you’ll find in this ebook about motivation:

1. How To Motivate Yourself
2. The Only Two Secrets to Motivating Yourself You’ll Ever Need
3. A Guide to Beating the Fears That Are Holding You Back
4. Task Ninja: Form the Action Habit
5. Top 20 Motivation Hacks
6. The Ultimate Guide to Motivation – How to Achieve Any Goal
7. Progress, Progress, Progress! 5 Tips To Keep You Moving Forward
8. 7 Steps to Turn Your Self-Improvement Desires Into Reality
9. 25 Killer Actions to Boost Your Self-Confidence
10. 6 Small Things You Can Do When You Lack Discipline
11. 16 Ways to Motivate Yourself When You’re in a Slump
12. 5 Tips For Motivational Recovery
13. The Magical Power of Focus
14. 10 Ways to Beat the “Can’t Get No Satisfaction” Syndrome
15. 30 Incredible Places to Turn When You Need Inspiration
16. How To Deal With Negative Feedback
17. How to Doggedly Pursue Your Dreams in the Face of Naysayers
18. Achieve Your Dreams Despite Pressures of Work and Family
19. Why You Should Celebrate Your Mistakes
20. How to Actually Execute Your To-do List
21. The Yin And Yang Of Persistence
22. Enduring the Valley to Get to Success
23. How To Relax And Why It’s So Important
24. The Simple Guide To Single-Tasking Success
25. Stop Reading About It and Do It

How Much?
The book is packed full of over 100 pages of powerful content and yet you can get your own copy for only $14.95! And not only that, but if for any reason you believe this book doesn’t deliver, we offer a full 100% money-back guarantee, so you can buy with confidence!

This is a must-have for anyone in need of drive, inspiration and the tools to achieve any goal!

Get your copy here: The Essential Motivation Handbook

Receive 3 bonus video podcasts on motivation for those who buy this ebook! Don’t wait, learn how to motivate yourself today.

About ebook author Leo Babauta
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Aristotle

“Zen Habits is about finding simplicity in the daily chaos of our lives. It’s about clearing the clutter so we can focus on what’s important, create something amazing, find happiness. It also happens to be one of the Top 100 blogs in the world, is uncopyrighted, and goes well with anything chocolate. Zen Habits features three powerful articles a week on: simplicity, health & fitness, motivation and inspiration, frugality, family life, happiness, goals, getting great things done, and living in the moment.”

Other E-Books:

Motivation E-Book
Minimalist Life E-Book
Productivity E-Book